2012 Schwartz Award Shortlist Announced

The Schwartz Award Shortlist is here, highlighting the best in young adult/middle reader books and children's picture books. It showcases diverse illustration and story styles ranging from migration, adventures and picturesque evocations of Canadian flora and fauna. The young adult/middle reader category challenges its jury with historical novels and stories from abroad, as well as thrilling mysteries and a celebration of women authors.

These two awards, of $6,000 each, recognize artistic excellence in writing and illustration in English-language Canadian and are awarded annually. The winners are selected by young readers. This year the jurors consist of students from Parkdale Junior and Senior Public School in Toronto. The award recipients will be announced at the school on May 31, 2012. For more information, visit the Ontario Arts Foundation.

Little is known about the fifteenth-century Persian painter Bizhad - we only know that he worked in what is now Afghanistan and Iran, and that he was the first artist to sign his works. Jackal in the Garden imagines Bizhad as an astoundingly gifted dreamer and contrasts him with a strong female protagonist, Anubis, a girl born disfigured into the harem of her vicious father. She must fight for survival - and her struggle leads her to Bizhad and the artists’ colony he leads. Both philosophers, they find common ground. Yet their different attitudes offer a sharp, unusual commentary on life, survival, and art that will resonate with young adult readers seeking their place in the world.